The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to method and system for user interface and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and system for user interface based on strokes.
As electronic devices have more and more the functionalities, the demand for alphanumeric input and extended controls having a limited size and can be easily integrated is increased. Several solutions for data entry for such devices exist like compact keyboards, handwriting recognition, and voice recognition.
Among the possible solutions, handwriting recognition is one of the more popular solutions because it is intuitive, fast, and requires a small footprint on a device. Different handwriting recognition based methods and devices are known and some of them require inputting only special, simplified strokes, for example Unistroke™ from the Xerox Corporation and Graffiti™ from Palm, Inc. Some of the handwriting recognition based methods and devices require the use of a stylus or pen as an input device and a high resolution input device such as a pressure sensitive or resistive touchpad.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,519,748, issued on Apr. 14, 2009, describes a data entry system comprising of: an input surface, a limited number of input elements of any shape and positions at the input surface, and a processing device (for detecting a continuous sweeps of an input object over the input surface, for tracking a sequence of the input elements interacted with the input object during such sweeps, and for generating a function associated with the sequence after the sweep is completed). A system characterized in that the processing device is adapted for time independent and reliable detecting a sequence of input elements, even if an input object could interact with several input elements simultaneously.
Another exemplary stroke based input method and system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,803 issued on May 4, 2004 and suitable for hand held processor implemented devices with small touch pad writing surfaces. The writing surface is divided into a grid by a number of spaced discrete points. The user is instructed to write, as by a stylus, characters such as alphabetic characters, numbers or symbols with the writing path extending through a predetermined sequence of the points which define the grid. The stylus must pass sequentially within a specified distance of mandatory points for processor recognition of each written character and may additionally pass within a predetermined distance of optional points.